The Washington Trail by Lou Aguilar is something of a surprise. The meat of the story is a present-day political thriller with unapologetic allusions to our current election, while its bones are pure pulp. To some, the “ripped from the headlines” aspect may seem a little too on-the-nose, but I think that by the next election cycle (if we’re allowed to read in the gulags) it will still be wildly entertaining in a different way. Part of the reason why we won’t ever toss this novel like yesterday’s news is because of its mode of storytelling.
If this were a movie, it’d be less Three Days of the Condor and more of a Dirty Harry sequel.
Rather than other political thrillers I’ve read, The Washington Trail reminds me of a Cool and Lamb mystery. I’ve mentioned Early Stanley Gardner’s hardboiled series before, but suffice to say when writing as A.A. Fair he allowed his characters to do things Perry Mason couldn’t. The women are sexier, the violence bloodier, and the grit grimier. Sometimes good men need to do bad things to keep the truly evil from winning.
Sometimes they do bad things because life is more fun that way.
Here Aguilar introduces us to Mark Slade and Neil Cork, private eyes. Slade is an ex-Army Ranger, a playboy with a broken heart, and western movie aficionado. James Bond if he was still masculine, Jack Ryan if he wasn’t a buttoned-up nerd. Cork is a by-the-book and a family man, who won’t turn a blind eye to Slade’s methods. Just, you know, glance sideways when it’s better to do so. Apart, neither would succeed. Together, there’s a chemistry readers will grow to appreciate.
They’re a duo I’m going to miss and want to revisit.
As in any hardboiled crime thriller, this one starts with a beautiful woman walking into their office. Amy Gallup has a problem. Her fiance, Greg, an aide to a powerful Republican senator, has stopped speaking to her and she wants to know why. Turns out, it may have something to do with his new boyfriend, a radical leftist (but I repeat myself) activist and artist. After Slade gets undeniable video proof that Greg isn’t just playing pattycake with his paramour, he “comforts” Amy in the James Bond fashion. And if you’re familiar with the genre, I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say red flags are being raised.
But sometimes red flags are really red herrings.
Or are they?
In either case, things begin spinning out of control when Greg opens fire on Slade and Washington D.C. PD before killing himself. Turns out, he was mixed up with people who want to control the outcome of the next presidential election using something called the Apocalypse Mask, and another faction determined to keep things fair and honest even if they have to use illegal and unconstitutional methods to do so. The scary thing is, if you’re reading independent news sources, none of this sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory.
Good fiction takes things to their logical extremes, no matter how implausible we want to believe they are.
This is good fiction.
Aguilar knows how to pace his story, never letting the action overwhelm the plot or vice versa. Some of the action is perhaps a little too silly and contrived, but it’s those moments which also bring some levity and keep the story in touch with its pulpier roots. These things are foreshadowed, of course, and the novel maintains its internal logic. Really, my only complaint is the frank discussions about sex, yet I also understand that this too is part of the genre in which the story sits. The Washington Trail is written for the extremely based (though obviously not pearl-clutchingly religious), MAGA crowd, without ever getting too preachy about it. If you like it, you like it. If it turns your stomach, it’s not for you.
Your mileage may vary.
But I’d encourage everyone to give it a try.
You never know, you just might like it.
Because while the Left is raging, a novel like this shows that on the Right we still know how to have fun while fighting the good fight.
